Incantations??? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Incantations??? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Olli
02-22-04, 06:01 AM since i live in germany and ua is hard to come by (at least at the moment) i hope someone can explain what incantations are and how they are used.
strenoth
02-22-04, 12:10 PM they are the 'everyman' spells. they are long rituals to do something rather specific, and they ahve to be looked up by knowledge arcana and sometimes other skill checks to get everything right.

they are spells to a certain extent, but every one can cast them, and there is always a price to be paid even if you do everything right, and if you mess up two checks in a row, there is usually a rather nasty little result.

usually a spell caster can do something similiar, but faster and with less risk. Sometimes the ritual is more useful that a normal spell, and a spellcaster is usually the best person to cast a ritual too.
OtherNiceMan
02-22-04, 12:58 PM Incantations come fom the Urban Arcana (UA!?) campaign setting for d20 Modern and are included in the d20 Modern SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd).
Olli
02-22-04, 02:35 PM thank you, guys:bow:
Hengwrt Ellesmere
02-22-04, 05:48 PM Incantations make excellent plot devices for the DM.

Say you want your level one party to go up against a group of cultists who have been raising skeletons and zombies in the church cemetery. A cleric who would be capable of creating these basic monsters would be too difficult for the party to defeat, but a group of level one clerics working together with the right incantation could churn out enough skeletons and zombies to challenge the party and then be defeated in the end.
Banpai
02-22-04, 05:59 PM Incantations are indeed great plot devices, and the best, they are equally valuable to almost all classes so adventures to reatain an evil book from a cult, find an old tome in a great library in a forgotten city to cure the princess from a great illness......
You can do soo many thing with incantations as DM but I felt rather lost with the information given in the book until I found unearthed arcana.
Despite the fact that NPCs could make great use of such incantations allowing players the write them seems wrong IMO.
Zaebos
02-22-04, 06:09 PM I probably wont use the Incantations Variant in my game, but not because I see it as unbalancing. It seems more oriented to flavor so in that sense, Incantations are a nice addition to anyones campaign who feels that magic should be available to everyone.
Banpai
02-22-04, 06:13 PM Am I the only one who always thinks about series like Angel, and Buffy when reading about incantations ?
stone_dog
02-22-04, 06:15 PM Not anymore... damn it.
Zaebos
02-22-04, 06:21 PM Originally posted by Banpai
Am I the only one who always thinks about series like Angel, and Buffy when reading about incantations ?

Ahh, to be totally ignorant of those appaling shows is complete bliss. I refuse to watch them, so to me, Incantations resemble a more typical 'old earth' type of D&D style.

But i probably still won't use them in my campaign
Reflux
02-22-04, 10:25 PM Personally I think of Incantations as an extended verbal component. It is not necessarily (can someone spell that) magical. If you very well felt like saying one, you could, but it wouldn't work. Now, some incantations work, but in my world the vast majority of those that do are lost, forgotten, hidden, burried, burnt, soaked beyond legibility, blown across the world, or otherwise destroyed.
flyingmoose
02-23-04, 02:01 AM Originally posted by Reflux
Personally I think of Incantations as an extended verbal component. It is not necessarily (can someone spell that) magical. If you very well felt like saying one, you could, but it wouldn't work.

Well, now wait a minute. Have you ever seen Evil Dead? All they did was play a tape of one and BAM! Zombie movie.
Banpai
02-23-04, 11:51 AM Evil dead is a great example:

Klatu Verata ne- *cough* tu - I have sad it! :angel:
Eagle Prince
03-02-04, 06:54 PM I thought it might be cool to play a more low-magic game where there are no spellcasting classs at all... all magic and spells would be incantations... so no clerics, wizards, sorcerers, etc... you could still keep some classes with magic like Ranger and Paladin simply by replacing their half-progression spellcasting with something else. Then you'd also need a "smart" type of core class that has all the knowledge skills and such with who knows what type of bonus abilities, maybe bonus feats or something. They would be the "spellcasting" class since they'd be one of the few who had enough ranks and such to cast the high level incantations. You'd also need to make a bunch more incantations and print them out, which would be a serious pain, but I think it would be a really cool campaign.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Olli 02-22-04, 06:01 AM	since i live in germany and ua is hard to come by (at least at the moment) i hope someone can explain what incantations are and how they are used.
strenoth 02-22-04, 12:10 PM	they are the 'everyman' spells. they are long rituals to do something rather specific, and they ahve to be looked up by knowledge arcana and sometimes other skill checks to get everything right. they are spells to a certain extent, but every one can cast them, and there is always a price to be paid even if you do everything right, and if you mess up two checks in a row, there is usually a rather nasty little result. usually a spell caster can do something similiar, but faster and with less risk. Sometimes the ritual is more useful that a normal spell, and a spellcaster is usually the best person to cast a ritual too.
OtherNiceMan 02-22-04, 12:58 PM	Incantations come fom the Urban Arcana (UA!?) campaign setting for d20 Modern and are included in the d20 Modern SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd).
Olli 02-22-04, 02:35 PM	thank you, guys:bow:
Hengwrt Ellesmere 02-22-04, 05:48 PM	Incantations make excellent plot devices for the DM. Say you want your level one party to go up against a group of cultists who have been raising skeletons and zombies in the church cemetery. A cleric who would be capable of creating these basic monsters would be too difficult for the party to defeat, but a group of level one clerics working together with the right incantation could churn out enough skeletons and zombies to challenge the party and then be defeated in the end.
Banpai 02-22-04, 05:59 PM	Incantations are indeed great plot devices, and the best, they are equally valuable to almost all classes so adventures to reatain an evil book from a cult, find an old tome in a great library in a forgotten city to cure the princess from a great illness...... You can do soo many thing with incantations as DM but I felt rather lost with the information given in the book until I found unearthed arcana. Despite the fact that NPCs could make great use of such incantations allowing players the write them seems wrong IMO.
Zaebos 02-22-04, 06:09 PM	I probably wont use the Incantations Variant in my game, but not because I see it as unbalancing. It seems more oriented to flavor so in that sense, Incantations are a nice addition to anyones campaign who feels that magic should be available to everyone.
Banpai 02-22-04, 06:13 PM	Am I the only one who always thinks about series like Angel, and Buffy when reading about incantations ?
stone_dog 02-22-04, 06:15 PM	Not anymore... damn it.
Zaebos 02-22-04, 06:21 PM	Originally posted by Banpai Am I the only one who always thinks about series like Angel, and Buffy when reading about incantations ? Ahh, to be totally ignorant of those appaling shows is complete bliss. I refuse to watch them, so to me, Incantations resemble a more typical 'old earth' type of D&D style. But i probably still won't use them in my campaign
Reflux 02-22-04, 10:25 PM	Personally I think of Incantations as an extended verbal component. It is not necessarily (can someone spell that) magical. If you very well felt like saying one, you could, but it wouldn't work. Now, some incantations work, but in my world the vast majority of those that do are lost, forgotten, hidden, burried, burnt, soaked beyond legibility, blown across the world, or otherwise destroyed.
flyingmoose 02-23-04, 02:01 AM	Originally posted by Reflux Personally I think of Incantations as an extended verbal component. It is not necessarily (can someone spell that) magical. If you very well felt like saying one, you could, but it wouldn't work. Well, now wait a minute. Have you ever seen Evil Dead? All they did was play a tape of one and BAM! Zombie movie.
Banpai 02-23-04, 11:51 AM	Evil dead is a great example: Klatu Verata ne- cough tu - I have sad it! :angel:
Eagle Prince 03-02-04, 06:54 PM	I thought it might be cool to play a more low-magic game where there are no spellcasting classs at all... all magic and spells would be incantations... so no clerics, wizards, sorcerers, etc... you could still keep some classes with magic like Ranger and Paladin simply by replacing their half-progression spellcasting with something else. Then you'd also need a "smart" type of core class that has all the knowledge skills and such with who knows what type of bonus abilities, maybe bonus feats or something. They would be the "spellcasting" class since they'd be one of the few who had enough ranks and such to cast the high level incantations. You'd also need to make a bunch more incantations and print them out, which would be a serious pain, but I think it would be a really cool campaign.